After failing to come to any agreement last week, developer Apthorp Associated LLC, sponsor of the condominium conversion at the Apthorp, between 78th and 79th streets, is suing Anglo Irish Bank over the sale of a loan tied to the 103-year old Upper West Side landmarked building, Bloomberg News reported.
Private equity firms Lone Star, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase triumphed in a battle for Anglo Irish’s $9.5 billion portfolio of U.S. commercial real estate loans last month. Lone Star took pools of non-performing and sub-performing loans worth around $5 billion, including the Apthorp mortgage.
Anglo Irish, which is selling a $9.7 billion portfolio of U.S. real estate loans, is required to maintain at least a 51 percent interest in the $385 million loan, Apthorp Associates LLC said in a complaint filed today in New York State Court in Manhattan.
“Apthorp’s express contractual right to have a single majority lender on the project throughout the term of the loan will be lost absent prompt injunctive relief, thereby causing it irreparable harm,” Apthorp said.
The Apthorp has a troubled history. Anglo Irish Bank agreed to restructure the its debt in 2009, not long after the sponsors narrowly averted foreclosure proceedings by one of its mezzanine lenders. [Bloomberg]